I almost skipped tonight's practice. Between moving furniture all weekend and then how absolutely awful last week was, I didn't want to go. I AM SO GLAD I WENT. Was it perfect? No. But some really vital things started clicking in place.

1. Summer. Where to even begin. My little wild old dog is getting wilder and wilder. She was everywhere all at once all class. First run was 9 obstacles with some interesting turns and Summer was off course almost as much as on. I was proud because we recovered well from it all. Probably wouldn't have been a Q but boy was she having fun. The rest were less eventful. We're shaping weaves now and that's going much nicer. Her last couple runs were solid and good golly is she fast. We also had one run on top of the tunnel moment, lol.

The biggest, most important thing with Summer though was that she was PLAYING like I couldn't believe. Before her runs, after her runs, while we were waiting... every time I pulled out her tug, she engaged and engaged a lot more than she ever has. I've always been a little envious of the dogs that people have that tug so easily.... and then my little old papillon has always been not even not interested in toys, but actively afraid of them.

She does not tug or fetch really yet but she will chase the toys, follow them around, mouth and paw at them for minutes now. And she's happy. I pull out the tug and Summer is scrambling all over herself to get it and is bouncing up and down in excitement. Summer.... my dog who I've always said 'doesn't play'. She even was chasing and mouthing Mia's tennis balls and taking them from my hand.

I know this will sound corny but I honestly almost started crying (tearing up now). It's SO COOL to see Summer playing and having fun like she is. I'm seeing a side of her that I've never in 5 years unlocked before. It's SO COOL.

Spent the weekend at a seminar with Kathy Keats. It was awesome. Izzie and I were very on as a team and she's enjoying her new jump height. I am however having to adjust my handling for my faster dog haha.

The best thing about Kathy Keats seminars is the mental game stuff. She's especially great for that. It's something I struggle with and always have and I took away some great points this weekend that I'm percolating within my brain cells.

She said that Izzie and I are an awesome team and that I've done really well with her. I almost cried at that point. Iz has come so far from that scared dog hiding in tunnels, it's been a hell of a journey for sure and we've got lots of adventures to come!

Tomorrow we head out to one of the main parks in town for the Canada Day celebration. Our club is doing demos again this year as we're a huge attraction. Izzie and I are performing all afternoon, she loves demos as she gets cheered on by loads of people and gets lots of love.

2. Mia. Mia is a little bit more complicated. I've noticed the last few weeks she's been worried about something. So she's been engaging then disengaging more. This is very new lately. When she's on, she is having lots of fun but then things are worrying her. I think she does not like drilling and does not like being wrong. I also think I messed up bad with the weaves and stressed her out.

so tonight we were fixing some stuff on my end. I was more upbeat and although she was not playing as well as Summer was, I really worked hard on motivating her through basic tricks like 'hi five' and 'spin' to rev her up some. It worked and I saw a lot of improvement especially when we worked weaves. I am also just doing shaping for the weaves with her. She's on 3 poles right now almost fully closed and the last few runs went from just barely walking and stress yawning to running the weaves with excitement.

I think I've worried and fretted over weaves that she's picked up on it and it's translated to all agility in her mind. I'm also really rewarding the moments she's engaging and trying not to repeat and drill things. With these changes, she is doing much much better. Her first run was off and on, really engaged then we'd mess up and she'd check out, then she'd engage again. The last couple runs were much smoother and she was having a lot more fun.

We also got to play ball a few times today and she was playing full speed and just having so much fun. It's been a struggle that as into tennis ball as she is at home, she is not so much at agility. So we stayed 20 mins after class just hanging and playing and she had a blast. I think we need to do this more often to make there be more positive associations with the ring for her. I even got her to do jumps just FLYING for her ball. Just a couple times and only one jump. If I can harness her drive for that ball, it will be awesome. I think I'm starting to get there.

A lot of things... just an overwhelming feeling that he's not ready. Worried about wasting a lot of money to have him be not ready. I'm not confident his contacts will be where I want them by trial time (I have a month still, but only another week and a half to decide to pull him and get my money back, and I can't afford to pull after close and not get my money back.) I don't want to take him in a ring not ready and just have a total mess to try and clean up later.
And his forward drive was rubbish today. I took him to my house and set up a novice course from Auggie's novice days and planned to run him through it and see what he did. It was just short of a complete disaster and I would have deserved to be laughed out of any ring regardless of venue. I don't know if he was too hot to work because he spent the entire time I was getting the jumps put together (broke them apart to bring them over to my house) and then set up he was running around barking at not-actually-there-squirrels or what the hell was going on, but it was horrible. I deleted the video it was so bad.

I feel like he's never going to be ready, especially now that I don't have a real agility instructor anymore. I'm a total joke of a dog trainer and the only thing I can say to my credit is that I won't abuse my dog in the name of "training." Whoop-de-f'ing-doo.

And the worst part is I got mad about it and thought "AUGGIE could have done this beautifully and beyond easily." He is not Auggie. I cannot be mad at Payton for not being Auggie. It is not Payton's fault that Auggie can't play anymore. So I guess I'm not really ready either, not ready to run any other dog besides Auggie. I'm having a really hard time with this and it's stupid and I don't know why.

More than anything else in the world I just want to run Auggie and have him enjoy it like he does when we play in the backyard, but he doesn't. And that's probably all my fault too.

Kes and Z had an agility trial this weekend. We haven't trialled since January and this was the first time I entered Kes in Standard since I didn't trust his weaves until now, so I knew it might be a mixed bag...

Ziva's results = 3Q/5
SATURDAYMasters Jumpers: Q with super speed from Z - turned most of my planned front crosses into rears. lolMasters Pairs: NQ because our partner E'd. Z did have to retry the weaves because of a weird entry after a chute.Masters Gamblers: Q with an absolutely gorgeous gamble that had us getting compliments from tons of people after and a total of 52 points (37 min). Soooo wish it was on video.
SUNDAYMasters Snooker: Q with 37 points even though she didn't finish 6 and 7 in the closing. My handler error caused her to go in the wrong end of the tunnel. :PMasters Jumpers: NQ because I'm an idiot who stopped moving forward and caused her to backjump. >.<

Kestrel's results = 1Q/5
SATURDAYStarters Jumpers: NQ because my cues weren't clear enough, but had the fastest time in his class (22") despite that AND he was engaged with me 100%!Starters Standard: NQ due to time faults - got all 12 weaves on his second try, got a bit weirded out on the dog walk (I think he thought it was a teeter and bailed when it didn't tip when he thought it would), so he disconnected and said hi to the judge, buuut he did re-engage and finish strongly!Starters Gamblers: NQ on the last jump in the gamble - he's just not ready for that much distance. No one else in his class Q'd, though, so with 40 points he got a first place anyway.
SUNDAYStarters Standard: NQ - I over handled him after a slide off on the table and the chute to the weaves entry and he ended up bonking his head into the third pole. He tried to finish the weaves, but when I called him out to retry he got confused/stressed and went to visit the ring crew. I decided to walk him off because I didn't want him rehearsing that behavior again, but once I was off the course I had a revelation about his visiting that I think should help us in the future!Starters Jumpers: Q and he finished his Starters Jumpers TITLE!! I was nervous and that made him nervous, so he thought about visiting the ring crew at the first tunnel, BUT I got him back, and because I figured that bobble would put us over time, decided to say screw it to the "walk don't run" advice I had gotten in the past for his visiting and we just RAN and ran HARD. He had a blast, I was on top of the world, and we ended up 1.5 seconds UNDER time! Rock on! Another run I wish I had on video...

I feel like he's never going to be ready, especially now that I don't have a real agility instructor anymore.

It's a tough decision to pull, but if you feel he isn't ready, then do what is best for both of you.

I just wanted to throw this in. I train at my own home, alone. There is no agility club here, nor one within easy driving distance. I have to train solely by myself.

I always enter a trial right before I *know* my dog is ready. I just enter a few easy classes, just to get the experience for my dog. I am completely ok with throwing away those runs just because I need to get my dog out and see where we are. I try to make it a fun experience and find out if we need contact work, weave work, distraction work, table stuff, measuring practice, etc.

Even for a dog who trains at a club a trial environment is totally different. I just never expect my baby dog to go out and blow people away at their first trial. Heck, I almost expect my dog to do something completely embarrassing or bail every contact, run out of the ring, face the wrong way at the start line, etc.

I don't feel like its bad training, I'm working with what I have, and I don't have a club or overly distracting place to train. Zen's first trial was only his second or third time on equipment other than our own. I rented a ring once (5 hrs away), and had him at one fun match (2 hrs away).

If people have a problem with me trialing my new or inexperienced dog then they can go watch the masters ring and mind their own business.

Laurelin - glad you had such a good class! It's great that you recognized what is stressing your dog out about agility. Or at least have a good guess. I can't tell you how any people I see locally with dogs who are obviously very stressed about weave poles and the owners are totally clueless. And this is at trials - dogs who run really slow until they're done with the weaves then speed up, dogs who slow way down and show multiple stress signals at the weaves, dogs who routinely try to run past the weaves and get stressy when called back, etc. Weave related stress is actually pretty common IME.